摘要：The paper examined and analysed the problems and prospects of the Nigerian bureaucracy since colonial days till the present time. It discovered that the public bureaucracy in Nigeria has been hounded by colonial legacy, the prolonged military rule, unstable political environment, economic crisis, social menace, constitutional lapses, unfavourable public policies such as the federal character, bureaucratic bottlenecks (such as red-tapism, rigidity, centralization, excessive bureaucratic layers), poor conditions of service etc. All of these factors have impeded the effective performance of the Nigerian bureaucracy in several ways. The association of bureaucracy with pejorative expression cannot be totally isolated from the factors enumerated above. The paper concluded that except these problems are addressed (some of which, suggestions are made in the paper), the prospect for its survival is dicey.
关键词：Colonial legacy; military rule; survival; ; public policies
